Airlines Urged to Heed WHO on Ebola So Flights Continue

Workers prepare the new Doctors Without Borders (MSF) Ebola treatment center near Monrovia, Liberia, on August 17, 2014. Photographer: John Moore/Getty Images

Aug. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Air links should be maintained with
Ebola-hit regions in West Africa that need connections to the
outside world, the International Air Transport Association said
after more carriers put flights on hold.

The industry needs only to screen passengers at airports in
infected areas, apply rigorous procedures including isolation
when handling suspected cases, and disinfect planes afterward,
IATA said yesterday, citing World Health Organization advice
that aviation constitutes a “low risk” for Ebola transmission.

“They have been very clear that travel and trade bans are
unnecessary,” Raphael Kuuchi, IATA’s vice president for Africa,
told the body’s Africa Aviation Day conference in Johannesburg.
“Unless this advice changes we hope that countries working hard
to eradicate Ebola continue to benefit from air connectivity.”

IATA commented after Kenya Airways Ltd., Africa’s third-largest carrier, said Aug. 16 it would cease flying today to
Liberia and Sierra Leone -- which together with Guinea are the
focus of the Ebola outbreak -- on the advice of the Kenyan
health ministry. That’s after Korean Air Lines Co. said it would
end trips to Nairobi on Aug. 20 because of the risk of infection
spreading there via services from West Africa.

Commercial Impetus

While some carriers have elected to stop serving affected
nations as a precaution, others may be reaching a “commercial
decision” based on a decline in travel demand to and from
affected countries as news of the outbreak makes headlines
around the world, Kuuchi said.

“Airlines are within their rights to take whatever
cautionary measures they deem necessary,” Kuuchi said in a
separate statement.

South Africa’s government today responded to a newspaper
report suggesting travel to the country has been hurt by the
Ebola outbreak thousands of miles away, saying the story
referred only to a handful of travelers canceling trips.

“There is no need to incite panic and speculation on the
tourism industry,” Communications Minister Faith Muthambi said
in an e-mailed statement. “South Africa is safe and is still an
attractive destination for tourists.”

Task Force

The WHO said yesterday that in order to coordinate efforts
to contain Ebola’s spread and provide timely updates to
passengers it will establish a travel and transport task force
also featuring the heads of IATA and other industry bodies.

The health organization’s response follows Cameroon’s Aug.
16 announcement that it would no longer allow flights from
Ebola-hit states, with Public Health Minister Andre Mama Fouda
saying, “Control has equally been tightened in all health
districts, at the borders, airports and sea ports.”

Among operators closer to the Ebola outbreak, Gambia Bird,
Togo-based Asky Airlines and Nigeria’s Arik Air had all earlier
halted at least some flights into the area. Among top carriers,
British Airways and Emirates have also scrapped services.

Ed Winter, chief executive officer of discount carrier
FastJet Plc, said in an interview at the Johannesburg event that
it’s “fairly logical” for governments to close borders to help
stop the spread of Ebola, and that airlines are reaching a
“sensible decision” in pulling out of stricken countries.

Yet in the four decades since Ebola was first identified in
the Democratic Republic of Congo, the virus has never been
inadvertently exported outside of Africa, while a case last
month in which an infected Liberian took a flight from Monrovia
to Lagos is the only known instance of a spread via air travel.

Brussels Air Link

The disease can only be caught through direct contact with
body fluids, unlike respiratory infections such as tuberculosis,
with most transmission coming via care of the sick or in funeral
preparation and burial ceremonies, the WHO said.

Ghana’s Transport Minister Dzifa Aku Attivor said at the
South African conference that of 45 suspected Ebola cases in the
country, all were negative, and that it will follow WHO
recommendations and continue flights to affected countries.

Brussels Airlines, the only carrier from outside Africa
that serves all three Ebola-hit nations, is continuing with its
usual timetable, spokeswoman Kim Daenen said yesterday. The
carrier, which provides the bulk of West African flights for
Deutsche Lufthansa AG, a 45 percent shareholder, has consulted
with the WHO and the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp.

Air France said it’s maintaining flights to Sierra Leone
and Guinea, while putting in place a specific Ebola plan there
and in Lagos. Should a passenger exhibit symptoms on a flight
they’re isolated, given a mask and must use a separate washroom.

Asia Visitors

“Ebola is a terrible disease but it is not easy to
contract,” IATA’s Kuuchi said. “It can only be caught through
contact with bodily fluids. It is almost impossible to be
infected by someone on a flight.”

The South African government’s statement said the country
has protocols in place to address any incidence of the virus,
with increased surveillance at points of entry and at doctors’
surgeries. The country has 11 designated health-care facilities
to deal with any reported Ebola cases, it said.

The Johannesburg-based Times newspaper reported earlier
that Asian tourists in particular have canceled trips due to
Ebola concern. Some 1,500 Thais due to visit through October
have scrapped journeys, as well as groups from Malaysia, Hong
Kong, China and Japan it said, citing Southern African Tourism.

FastJet CEO Winter said the best outcome is for the impact
from Ebola to prove a short-term blip. The discount operator has
its main hub in Tanzania and currently serves only east and
southern African destinations, though its aim is to become a
pan-continental carrier with operations in West Africa, too.

“It will have a big effect on traveling in that region for
a period of time,” Winter said. “Hopefully it won’t be very
long before it’s contained and disappears.”

The WHO-led task force will include the heads of the World
Tourism Organization, Airports Council International, the United
Nations-backed International Civil Aviation Organization and the
World Travel & Tourism Council, as well as IATA, which has 240
airline members accounting for 84 percent of global traffic.